The Library of Congress subject headings have been examined in the past for their classification of subjects relating to race, gender, and sexuality. Overlooked is subject headings that relate to disabilities. In the course of creating records for the archival and object material that form the P.T. Barnum Digital Collection, the project discovered the imperfections of the Library of Congress subject headings, and the need to develop standards and protocols for the material.
This resulted in...
Something important to you missing from this newsletter? Send a submission my way and let me know what you would like to see.
Please submit newsletter items about archives and human rights (writ broadly) to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. These can be recent publications, upcoming events or exhibitions, opportunities and scholarships, or something else entirely as long as it connects to archives and human rights. For the July newsletter, please send you submission by July 24, 2018.
The HRA Section blog is very fortunate to have not one but two excellent posts this month. Tabitha Cary wrote about archives in Maryland collaborating to make the history of slavery more accessible online. This post summarized the MARAC Fall session "Promoting Transparency in the Legacy of Slavery" and can be read here.Itza Carbajal attended the Community Informatics Research Network conference in Prato, Italy and illuminated this innovative event. Topics included empowering communities through...
The UNICEF Internship Programme offers qualified and eligible students at both Headquarters (HQ) and Country Offices (CO) the unique opportunity to acquire direct practical experience in UNICEF's work and the United Nations system under the direct supervision of experienced UNICEF staff.To be considered for an internship with UNICEF, applicants must meet the following requirements:-Be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree programme (or recent graduate);-Be proficient in English,...
After the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Krikor Guerguerian, a priest and genocide survivor, traveled the world collecting evidence to document the atrocities. Taner Akçam, the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Professor in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, recently collaborated with Turkish experts and graduate students on a digital repository that makes Guerguerian’s vast collection of incriminating...
The National Security Archive mourns the passing of Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva, our dear friend, colleague and inspiration for all our work documenting human rights abuses globally. She passed away on December 8 at the age of 91.The self-described “Grandmother” of Russian human rights, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was a fearless opponent of authoritarianism in her homeland, facing the constant threat of retribution from her early days as a protestor and publisher of samizdat in the Soviet 1960s to...
The Museum of Black Civilisations opened on 6 December in Dakar to a flourish of dance, drums and acrobatics, and its curator, Senegalese Babacar Mbow, claims it "incomparable to anything in the world." Its 14,000 square metres of floor space and capacity for 18,000 exhibits puts it in league with the National Museum of African American History in Washington. Its range of exhibits is, however, more far-reaching. The high-ceilinged exhibition halls include Africa Now, showcasing contemporary...
The following is a translation of the first few paragraphs. View the entire article in Spanish here.
The Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile, recently announced the creation of a virtual space of historical memory for The Savior. The project "Social Strengthening of a Memory Space for El Salvador" was presented by the Director of the Museum of the Memory of...
The Museum will remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The focus of the celebration is community service and social and economic justice. Activities include daylong performances, youth-centered edutainment, a healthy community pavilion and the museum experience. In the spirit of service, the Museum will hold its annual Mid-South Food Bank Drive and Lifeblood Drive, and serve as a center for community resources and engagement.
Read more here.
Oberlin is currently one of eight sanctuary cities in Ohio. The city’s history is one of commitment to social justice, even when in conflict with federal law. Oberlin College is proud of the city’s history, and the college’s archives holds significant collections that document the city’s history of antislavery, abolitionism, coeducation, black education, and feminism, to name a few movements.
Just after the 2016 presidential election—amid discourse about immigrants, Muslims, and people of...
Something important to you missing from this newsletter? Send a submission my way and let me know what you would like to see.Please submit newsletter items about archives and human rights (writ broadly) to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. These can be recent publications, upcoming events or exhibitions, opportunities and scholarships, or something else entirely as long as it connects to archives and human rights. For the January newsletter, please send you submission by January 24, 2019.
January is a time when I reflect on highlights from the previous year, as I look forward to the new year and the path ahead of me. This past week, I thought a lot about an important speech I listened to five months ago: the keynote address delivered by oral historian and international scholar Dr. Leyla Neyzi, Professor at Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey.
At the 2018 Oral History Association meeting in Montreal, Dr. Neyzi shared her personal account of her experiences as a signatory of...
If you are attending either the Association of Hawai'i Archivists conference this February or the Society of North Carolina Archivists conference in March, the HRA Section Blog could use your help! It's not as hard as it sounds, and it's a great way to add a publication to your resume. The post can be a simple summary of the issues discussed at a certain session, or you can get a little opinionated and say what you thought was most productive about the session or not as productive. Here are ...
50 Children: Rescuing the Collections
In 2013, HBO (in association with the Museum) released the documentary 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus. It chronicles the efforts of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus—two Americans who rescued 50 Jewish children from Vienna in the late spring of 1939. Since then, many of those children have donated their precious artifacts to the Museum.
In 2014, almost 900 people watched and celebrated the Emmy Award-nominated film at a memorable event in...
In this comprehensive history, Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era, Ashley D. Farmer examines black women's political, social, and cultural engagement with Black Power ideals and organizations. Complicating the assumption that sexism relegated black women to the margins of the movement, Farmer demonstrates how female activists fought for more inclusive understandings of Black Power and social justice by developing new ideas about black womanhood.
This compelling book...
Join us for a reception and discussion featuring Keith Beauchamp, Producer of the upcoming film, Till.
Award-winning filmmaker Keith A. Beauchamp attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiane where he studied criminal justice with the intention of becoming a civil rights attorney. As a young boy in Baton Rouge, Beauchamp had his share of run-ins with racism but it wasn’t until an incident where he was assaulted by an undercover police officer after dancing with a white classmate at a...
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP) and the Tamer Institute for Community Education are thrilled to announce the launch of Matloub / Wanted: Library Books for Palestine, a campaign that seeks to raise awareness about issues facing libraries in Palestine and the political context in which they operate, while at the same time offering material support for the libraries' collections.
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP) and Palestinian partner organization Tamer Institute...
This article explores questions regarding the development and support of Indigenous priorities and self-determination in Australian libraries and archives. It calls for greater use of Indigenous research methodologies within library and archival science in order to seek ways to decolonize and simultaneously indiginze libraries and archives. As a written reflection, the article shares the perspectives of the author, who has worked in the sector for the past two decades as an Indigenous...
Immigration, the hallmark issue of the Trump presidency, was front page news all year. Assaults on birthright citizenship, Trump’s family separation policy, a new proposed public charge rule, the asylum ban, the lowest refugee cap ever, fearmongering the migrant caravan, the tragic deaths of children in U.S. custody, and the fight to fund Trump’s wall; at every turn the cruelty of U.S. immigration policy past and present has been on full display. The news cried out for historical analysis and...
Something important to you missing from this newsletter? Send a submission my way and let me know what you would like to see.Please submit newsletter items about archives and human rights (writ broadly) to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. These can be recent publications, upcoming events or exhibitions, opportunities and scholarships, or something else entirely as long as it connects to archives and human rights. For the February newsletter, please send you submission by February 21, 2019.
I am pleased to announce that the C&U Section Steering Committee recently voted for the theme of campus and campus-related histories, as this year’s Section focus. We will center on social justice-related work, such as inclusive and evolving historical narratives, contested commemorations, town-gown relations, and privilege within the archival record. I welcome your feedback on key questions we might pose, outputs that would be helpful to you in your jobs, or programmatic ideas for working...
African Americans and the disABILITY Experience is presented by the Museum of disABILITY History and a group of colleagues working in disability services at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Colleges and Universities (PBCUs), and the Taishoff Center at Syracuse University.
This consortium is identifying ways to provide culturally responsive disability services and classroom instruction to Black and African American college students with disabilities...
Some of the most populous states passed laws between 1985 and 1995, covering nearly one-third of the US population, requiring the teaching of the Holocaust in public schools. In each case, the law specified that knowledge about the Holocaust ought to be connected to human rights issues. Prejudice and discrimination must be identified with genocide, leading to an emphasis on “the personal responsibility that each citizen bears to fight racism and hatred whenever and wherever it happens” (New...
Five historical volumes covering the period 1863-1975 are available online in PDF format. They provide an overview of the ICRC operational and legal activities and therefore provide an ideal springboard for more in-depth research in the ICRC archives.Read more here.
The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect (AFC), in partnership with the Holocaust & Genocide Studies program at Stockton University, New Jersey, will launch its pilot Peer Guide Training Program through the exhibit “Anne Frank: A History for Today” at three high schools in Atlantic and Cape May counties this spring, following a public exhibition February 9-22 at Stockton University.Anne Frank wrote, “Even if people are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they...
